OLDEST COMMENTARY ON REVELATION

3. In an introduction it is as well to indicate that in all his writings blessed John delighted in words appropriate to the divinity of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In the present work, however, he employs words appropriate to his humanity, lest he would seem to come to know him from his divine attributes, and not from his human attributes too. (2) For it is a sign of genuine theology to believe that God the Word has been begotten from God and the Father before all eternity and temporal interval, being coeternal and consubstantial with the Father and the Spirit, and joint-ruler of the ages and of all spiritual and perceptible creation, according to the saying of the most wise Paul in the epistle to the Colossians, that “in him all things were created, things in heaven and things on earth, things invisible and visible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him, and he is the head of the body and of the church.”¹⁴ “He is the first-fruits, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent.”¹⁵

(3) But it is also a sign of genuine theology to believe that in the last days he has become for us and for our salvation a human being, not by divesting himself of his divinity, but by assuming human flesh, animated by a mind. In this way he who is Emmanuel is understood to have been made one from two natures, divinity and humanity, each being complete according to the indwelling Word and according to the different specific characteristic of each nature, without being confused or altered by their combination into a unity, and without being kept separate after the inexpressible and authentic union. For Nestorius and Eutyches are both equally abominable, two diametrically opposed evils.

(4) Therefore, in order that John might present the doctrine of our Savior accurately and precisely, after dwelling on the divine aspects of the Lord, as I have said, in his other writings, he here made use of his human words and thoughts. Nevertheless, neither in the former did he present what is divine apart from what is human, nor in the latter what is human apart from what is divine. He rather used a greater or lesser emphasis in his writings. (5) This is why he says, The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him, as though he was saying, “Although the present revelation has been given by the Father to the Son, it has now been given by the Son to us,” his slaves. By calling the saints slaves of Christ, he safeguarded his divine nature. For to whom would human beings belong, other than to the creator and maker of humankind? And who is the maker of humankind and of all creation? Nobody except the only Word and Son of God. For “all things were made by him,” says the present writer in the gospel.¹⁶

14. Col 1.18. Oecumenius adds the word “and” (kai) to the usual New Testament text.

15. Col 1.16, 18.

16. Jn 1.3. (Pp. 21-22)

6. He says, John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from God, who is and who was and who is coming (Rv 1.4).

7. This is the same as saying, “Grace to you from the God of us all.” For the Father calls himself “being” when addressing the most wise Moses at the bush, saying, “I am who I am,”¹⁹ (2) and the present blessed evangelist said “he was” about the Son, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,”²⁰ and again in the first of the general epistles, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and which our hands touched, concerning the Word of life.”²¹ (3) And by the one who is coming he means the Holy Spirit. For not only was the Spirit present on the day of Pentecost, according to the narrative in Acts, but he is always present, too, to the souls worthy of receiving him.

8. And from the seven spirits, he says, who are before his throne (Rv 1.4).

9. The seven spirits are seven angels; but not as being equally honored or coeternal were they included with the Holy Trinity—far from it—but as genuine servants and faithful slaves. For the prophet says to God, “For all things are your slaves.”²² In all things the angels are also comprised. And again the same prophet says about them, “Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.”²³ In this fashion, too, the apostle addressed Timothy when writing the first letter: “I charge you,” he says, “before God and Jesus Christ and the elect angels.”²⁴ (2) Further, by saying who are before his throne John gave added testimony to their rank as servants and ministers, and certainly not as having equal dignity.

10. And from Jesus Christ, he says, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth (Rv 1.5).

11. Earlier he had written about the pre-incarnate Word of God, describing him as he who was; now he speaks about him as incarnate, saying, and from Jesus Christ. He does not separate him into two, but witnesses to both aspects of him at once, both that he is the Word of the Father and that he was made flesh. He is the faithful witness; (2) for according to the apostle “he bore witness before Pontius Pilate by a good confession.”²⁵ But he says he was because he is God and Lord of all even though he is incarnate. Such witness is certainly the truth. For he calls the one who is true faithful and trustworthy. (3) The first-born of the dead: to this Paul, too, bears witness, saying, “He is the first-fruits, the first-born from the dead.”²⁶ They call him the first-born from the dead as being the one who initiated the universal resurrection, and who “opened for us a new and living way,” the resurrection from the dead, “through the veil, that is, his flesh” according to Scripture.²⁷ For all those who rose from the dead before the coming of the Lord were again delivered to death; for that was not the true resurrection, but a temporary remission of death. This is why none of those was called the first-born from the dead. But the Lord is called this, as he was both the origin and cause of the true resurrection. And just as he is a kind of first-fruits of the resurrection of human beings, so when he became a human being he led the way, as it were from a porch, from death to life. For concerning the Lord alone blessed Paul wrote in his epistle to the Romans, saying, “We know that since Christ was raised from the dead he no longer dies: death will no longer have any power over him. For by his death he died to sin once for all, and by his life he is alive to God.”²⁸

(4) He says, the ruler of the kings of the earth: Daniel also said this to the king of Babylon, “until you know that the Most High is lord over the kingdom of heaven, and he will give it to whom he pleases.”²⁹ So Christ is also the king of all those in heaven. But now meanwhile he speaks about those on the earth. As he goes on he shows him to be king of the holy legions in the heavens, too…

14. See, he is coming on the clouds of heaven, and every eye will see him, as well as those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Yea, Amen (Rv 1.7).

15. Of his coming on the clouds of heaven, the Lord in fact spoke about himself, in the gospel according to Mark, saying: “And the powers in the heavens shall be shaken, and then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”³⁴ For, I think, just as it is written in Acts that, when he was going up in the heavens on the day of his ascension, “a cloud took him from their sight,” so he will again come with a cloud.³⁵ (2) I think that the Holy Scripture figuratively calls the holy angels clouds because of their lightness and being high above the world and walking on air, as though it was saying, “the Lord will come mounted on the angels of God as his bodyguard.” For this is how the prophet also introduces him, saying, “And he mounted on cherubim and flew; he flew on the wings of the winds.”³⁶

(3) And every eye, he says, will see him, as well as those who pierced him: for his splendid second coming will not occur in a corner, nor secretly, as at first, when he visited the world in the flesh. The prophet clearly foreshadowed his first coming, saying, “And he will come down like rain on a fleece and like a shower falling in drops on the earth.”³⁷ But his second coming will be open and clear so as to be seen by every eye, even by the very sinful and unholy, among whom must be classed those who drunkenly abused or pierced him.

(4) And all the tribes of the earth, he says, will mourn over him— that is to say, those who continued in unbelief and did not choose to bend their necks under his saving yoke. But the words over him you will understand to refer to his appearance and coming. (5) Then to declare the certainty of that which is to happen he added, Yea, amen, all but saying precisely and unambiguously that these things will take place. For just as among Greeks Yea [nai] expresses assent to what will happen, so also does Amen among the Hebrews.

16. I am Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is coming, the sovereign Lord, and Lord of creation (Rv 1.8).

17. Alpha means the beginning, and Omega the end. Therefore he says, I am the first and the last (Rv 1.17), declaring by the first that God has no beginning, and by the last that he has no end. For since with human beings there is nothing that is without beginning and end, he used what is for us the beginning and the end, instead of saying, “without beginning and without end.” This is also what God said through Isaiah: “I, God, am the first, and I shall be for the ages to come.”³⁸ (2) He calls God sovereign Lord, and Lord of creation, of spiritual as well as of perceptible creation.

19. Ex 3.14.

20. Jn 1.1.

21. 1 Jn 1.1.

22. Ps 118.91.

23. Ps 102.21.

24. 1 Tm 5.21.

25. 1 Tm 6.13.

26. Col 1.18.

27. Heb 10.20.

28. Rom 6.9–10.

29. Dn 5.21…

34. Mk 13.25–26.

35. Acts 1.9.

36. Ps 17.11.

37. Ps 71.6. (Pp. 23-25)

(5) And in the midst of the seven lampstands, he says, one like a son of man: for since the Lord himself promises to dwell in the souls of those who have received him and to walk in their midst, how could he not have been seen in the midst of the lampstands? (6) He calls Christ son of man as one who for us humbled himself as far as “taking the form of a slave,”⁴⁶ who became “the fruit of the womb,” according to the divine hymn,⁴⁷ the womb of Mary, unwed and ever-virgin. Since Mary was a human being and our sister, naturally he who is born from her without seed as a human being is called God the Word and the son of man. He has carefully called him not a son of man, but one like a son of man; but he who is Emmanuel is also God and Lord of the universe. (7) The vision shows his varied appearance by his operations and powers, as it depicts his form. First he clothes him with a priestly dress, for the long robe and girdle are a priestly dress. He was addressed by God and the Father, “You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedek,”⁴⁸ but the apostle, too, calls Christ “the high priest and apostle of our confession,”⁴⁹ as being in the priestly service and leading us to make our confession of faith in him and the Father and the Spirit. (8) He puts a golden girdle around him, whereas the priests according to the [Mosaic] Law had a girdle of embroidered cloth. The difference between slaves and a master had to be pointed out, that is, the difference between the shadow of the law and the truth shown by the new girdle.

(9) His head, he says, and his hair were like white wool and like snow: for God’s secret purpose in Christ is new in its appearance, but it is before all ages in its intention. For the blessed apostle has written about it as “the secret purpose which has been kept hidden in all past ages and from generations, which has now been revealed to those of his holy people whom he wished.”⁵⁰ Therefore, the age-old intention of the purpose revealed in God’s good pleasure is represented by the hoariness of the head and its comparison with wool and snow

(10) He says, and his eyes were like a flame of fire: this either means that the flame of fire has the form of light—since Christ both is light and calls himself light, saying “I am the light and the truth”⁵¹—or it exposes the danger and the threat against the seven churches to whom the facts of the Revelation are passed on, in that they were not fully following his laws.

46. Phil 2.7.

47. Ps 126.3.

48. Heb 5.6; Ps 109.4.

49. Heb 3.1.

50. Col 1.26–27.

51. Jn 8.12; 14.6. (Pp. 29-30)

29. It is the habit of the holy prophets when seeing a vision to be struck with amazement and to exhibit human weakness. Divine matters far exceed human affairs, and surpass them in ways past all comparison. We know that this is what Joshua the son of Nun felt when he saw the commander-in-chief of the battle-line of the Lord, as did Daniel, “the man of desires,” in the visions seen by him.⁶⁶ (2) Therefore I fell at his feet as though dead, says the evangelist, struck with amazement by the sight. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Do not fear. Saint John would not have been able to stay alive as a result of being struck by the vision, if the saving right hand of the Son of God had not touched him, which could effect so many marvels with a single touch.

(3) And he says to me, I am the first and the last, as if he said, “I am the one who came to be with you in the flesh for the salvation of all of you at the end of the age, though I am the first and ‘the first-born of all creation.’⁶⁷ So how can you suffer any evil from my appearance? For if while living and being a fountain of life for you I died and again came to life after trampling on death, how can you who have life because of me and my vision, ever become dead? (4) And if I also have the keys of Death and of Hades, so that those whom I wish I may put to death or preserve alive, and if I could send them down to Hades and bring them up in accordance with what has been written about me, and mine are, as the prophet says, “the ways of escape from death,”⁶⁸ I would not dispatch my worshipers and disciples to an untimely death.” (5) Since, therefore, he will not die, he says, write what you have seen, both what is and what is going to take place. In saying what is, he means both past and present events, and in saying, what is going to take place, he means future events. Of the things seen in the vision by the holy one, some had already taken place. Even if he had gone back as far as he could, these events would not have preceded the beginning. So he mentioned what is; but the argument will go on to show some events that were past and some which were still to take place.

30. He speaks of the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches (Rv 1.20).

31. Now since he has made clear to him what the stars and what the lampstands are, he goes on to speak of the evidence against each of the churches. He explains to the blessed evangelist how he is to lay a charge against the church which strays far away from the divine purpose, and how he is to commend the carefulness of those who observe part of the evangelical law, while in other cases he is to set right those which are stumbling. Christ, “who wills all people to be saved”⁶⁹ and wishes them to become heirs and partners of his own bounty, has ordered his word and teaching as an appropriate remedy for each of the churches, and has enjoined the evangelist to spread abroad the gospel and his teaching. (2) To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

66. Jos 1.9; Dn 10.11 and 8.17.

67. Col 1.15.

68. Ps 67.21.

69. 1 Tm 2.4. (Pp. 32-34)

… (10) Then after the divine admonition the evangelist adds his own words, saying, He who has an ear, that is, who is obedient and submissive to the divine laws, let him listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. He said the Spirit either because the events of the Revelation were being carried out in the Spirit, or he calls Christ Spirit, as in fact he is and is understood to be God, just as of course he is also called the son of man, as he is and is perceived as man. For the Godhead as a whole is called Spirit, as the Lord himself says to the Samaritan woman when talking with her, “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth.”¹⁰… (P. 37)

(4) But I have this against you, to show that to be completely sinless belongs to God alone. What do I have against you? That you tolerate the woman Jezebel and you do not banish her, who calls herself a prophetess: he describes the wickedness of this church in terms relating to Jezebel, the consort of Ahab. She, he says, who calls herself a prophetess is teaching and misleading many to commit fornication and eat food sacrificed to idols: he means either actual fornication or apostasy from God, according to what is said, “and they committed fornication by their practices,”²⁷ and again, “they committed adultery with a tree.”²⁸ (5) But the Lord, who does not wish the death of a sinner, but his conversion and life, says, “I have given her time for repentance. But if she does not wish to repent, I shall do the same to her as to those committing adultery with her, in order that all may know,” he says, “that I am God, for it is God’s business to search the minds and hearts. For Scripture says, ‘God, who examines the hearts and minds.’²⁹

27. Ps 106.39.

28. Jer 3.9.

29. Ps 7.10. (P. 42)

3. He says, These are the words of the Amen: this is equivalent to The true one says these things (Rv 3.7), as has been explained earlier. For Amen is “Yea.” For in him is “Yea,” and not “No” at all, as is said about him.¹ And the faithful witness has been mentioned earlier. So it is unduly verbose to go through the same things twice. (2) He says, the beginning ² of God’s creation: perhaps the Arians’ anti-Christ workshop would light upon this saying, as though the Son were described by these words as a creature. But let us not take notice of their unholy words. We must examine whether any such description occurs in another text, so that one might be able to form a judgment by comparing similar terms. (3) The wise apostle, writing to the Colossians, talks of the Son “who is the first-fruit” and “the first-born of all creation,”³ certainly not “the first-created.” And the prophet says, “From the womb before the morning-star I begot you,”⁴ certainly not “I created you.” But also Solomon: “Before all the hills he begets me.”⁵ For “the Lord created me as the beginning of his ways,”⁶ referring to the Lord’s body animated by his mind. Saint Gregory⁷ accepted this sense in his work On the Son. “He begets” refers to his divinity. (4) Therefore since all have decreed to use “begetting” and not “creation” in the case of the only Word and Son, what is the meaning of the present text, the beginning of God’s creation? Nothing other than the ruler of God’s creation, and he who has the rule⁸ over all things. For since the Father has made all things through the Son, it follows that as the maker and craftsman of the universe, who brings the universe into being from nonexistence, he rules over what has been brought into being by him.

1. 2 Cor 1.19.

2. The Greek (arche) means both “beginning” and “rule,” and Oecumenius explores this double meaning.

3. 1 Cor 15.23; Col 1.15.

4. Ps 109.3.

5. Prv 8.25.

6. Prv 8.22.

7. Cf. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orationes 30.2.

8. “Rule” renders Greek arche, which also means “beginning.” “Ruler” renders archon. (Pp. 49-50)

5. It is not that there is in heaven a door that is being shut and opened from time to time, but this is how it was shown to the evangelist so that he might see the things above the heavens. For when any door is opened, the things inside are necessarily observed. (2) He says, And I heard a voice, which sounded like a trumpet and said to me: Come up here, he says, so that you may see the things which are going to take place. (3) And I went up in the Spirit—for the way up was neither bodily nor perceptible—and, he says, I see a throne, and God and a Spirit on it like jasper and carnelian. God is certainly not like these, nor like any perceptible thing, or like a body at all; he is invisible, incorporeal, and without form, whose invisible nature the seraphim indicate as they cover their faces with their wings.²⁴ God, too, when he spoke to Moses said, Nobody shall see “my face and live.”²⁵ But also the evangelist himself denies this possibility, saying, “no one has ever yet seen God.”²⁶ Therefore, God was not seen to be like anything, but it was from the acts of God that the vision was depicted in the Revelation…

24. Is 6.2.

25. Ex 33.20.

26. Jn 1.18 (P. 53)

(7) He says, who is and who was, and is coming: the holy and august Trinity is indicated here, as was said earlier. But it does no harm to say it again now, for “to write the same things is not irksome to me, but it is safe for those who read,”⁵⁶ the divine apostle declared. He who is was the name given to the Father by Moses. For he says to him, “I am who I am.”⁵⁷ He who was is said about the Son by the evangelist himself, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”⁵⁸ By he who is coming he means the Holy Spirit, for he always visits the souls who are worthy to receive him. (P. 58)

(6) He says, I saw a strong angel proclaiming, “Who is worthy to open the little scroll and break its seals?” “No one, most divine angel,” one would say to him; only the incarnate God, who took away sin and who canceled “the bond which stood against us”⁶⁸ and with his own “obedience” healed our “disobedience.”⁶⁹ (7) He says, And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the little scroll. For neither did an angel accomplish this for us, as Isaiah says, “Not an envoy, nor an angel, but he himself saved them because he loved them,”⁷⁰ neither a living man, nor even one of the dead. “A brother cannot ransom himself—a man cannot ransom himself,” as it is written somewhere.⁷¹ (8) And why does he say, “I tell you to open the little scroll,” when no human being was strong enough to look into it? For how could anyone of those filled with the mist of sin look into it in the presence of the divine throne, on which the scroll was laid? “The unworthiness of all of them caused me to lament.” But one of the elders encouraged me, pointing to the one who had opened it. For he says to me, See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the little scroll and its seven seals. He, he says, who has conquered our conqueror, the Devil, is he who opened the little scroll and its seals. (9) And who was the lion of the tribe of Judah? Certainly the Christ, about whom the patriarch Jacob said, “He stooped down, he couched as a lion and as a lion’s cub. Who will raise him up?”⁷² That the Lord according to his humanity arose from Judah, the divine apostle is witness when he said, “For it is evident that our Lord Jesus” Christ “has arisen from Judah.”⁷³ (10) One might be surprised that he did not say of him, “A shoot from the root of Jesse,” or “A flower sprung up from the root,” as Isaiah said,⁷⁴ but he called him a root of David. He says this to show that according to his human nature he was a shoot sprung from the root of Jesse and David; but according to his divine nature, he himself is the root, not only of David but of all visible and invisible creation, since he is the cause of the universe, as was also said earlier.

(11) He says, And I saw in the midst of all those around the throne of God a lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth, and he came and took it—that is, the little scroll—from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. He called the Lord a lamb on account of his guilelessness, and his ability to provide. For just as the lamb is the provider with its yearly production of wool, so also the Lord “opens his hand and fills every living thing with delight.”⁷⁵ This at least is what prophecy calls him, saying through Isaiah, “like a lamb he was led to slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearer he was dumb,”⁷⁶ and through Jeremiah, “I did not know I was like a guileless lamb led to be slaughtered.”⁷⁷ (12) But the lamb is described not as slaughtered, but as though it had been slaughtered. For Christ came to life again, trampling death underfoot, and despoiling Hades of the souls in its possession. For the death of Christ was not an absolute death, but as it were a death cut short by the resurrection. But since the Lord after his resurrection continued to bear the symbols of death, the print of the nails,⁷⁸ having his life-giving body stained red by his blood, as Isaiah said, speaking in the person of the holy angels, “Why are your garments red, and your clothes like one who comes from the full-trodden wine-press?”⁷⁹—on account of this he was as one who had been slaughtered in the sight of the vision. (13) The seven horns bear witness to his great strength, as the number seven, being the perfect number, often indicates, as has also been said earlier. The horns are the symbol of power, according to the prophet who said, “And all the horns of the wicked I will break off, but the horn of the righteous shall be exalted,”⁸⁰ and Habakkuk has, “there are horns in his hands.”⁸¹ (14) The seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth, Isaiah interprets for us, saying, “And there shall rest upon him a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and reverence; a spirit of the fear of God will fill him.”⁸² These spirits, that is, spiritual gifts of grace, have been sent to everyone from God, but no one ever received them in the same way as they rested upon Christ in their work among practically all people. And he grew stronger in word and understanding.⁸³ For the spirits which he himself as God sent from above, these he himself received below as a human being. For he was both a human being and God. (15) To him belongs the glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Pp. 61-63)

2. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints; and they sing a new song, saying, (2) “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed us for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, (3) and you have made them kings and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth.” (4) Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, and their number was ten thousand times ten thousand, saying with a loud voice, (5) “Worthy is the Lamb who has been slain, to receive power and wisdom and wealth and might and honor and glory and blessing” (Rv 5.8–12).

3. All worshiped the Lord after he had taken the scroll, since they already knew the salvation which he was going to effect for human beings and the punishment he was going to bring on the polluted demons. (2) The elders’ holding harps indicates the harmony and concord of their confession of God, according to Scripture, “Sing praises to our God, sing praises.”² (3) The incense symbolizes the offering of all the nations, for Malachi, speaking in the person of God, says to disobedient Israel, “I will not accept an offering from your hand, for from the rising of the sun to its setting my name has been glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered in my name, and a pure sacrifice,”³ predicting by these [words] the faith of the nations and their bringing of gifts.(4) And they sing a new song: for the song sung to God incarnate is new, since it had never been invented before the incarnation. (5) What was the song? You are worthy, he says, to effect this salvation for human beings, you who were slain for us, and with your blood you took possession of many from among those under heaven. (6) Very correctly he said from every tribe and tongue and people and nation: for he did not acquire possession of everyone (for many died in unbelief), but only those who were worthy of salvation. The prophet also said something similar, “Arise, O God, judge the earth, because you” will place “your inheritance among all the nations,”⁴ where he does not simply say “all the nations.”

(7) And he made them kings and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth. You can indeed understand this literally, for the kings and presidents of the churches are [God’s] faithful people and servants of Christ. But you can also understand kings to be those who control their passions and are not controlled by them. And you can understand priests to be those who present their own persons “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” as Scripture says.⁵ (8) And he says not only the elders but also the incorporeal powers of the angels were singing a triumphant song to Christ. Daniel also predicted their number as now mentioned. The song of the angels attributes seven different honors to Christ, because by the number seven they indicate that it is fitting for Christ to be crowned with ten thousand praises.

4. And every creature in heaven and on earth and in the sea are yours, and I heard all that was in them saying, “to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever.” (2) And the four living creatures said “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped (Rv 5.13–14).

5. The present words show the concordant hymn of praise from all creation in heaven and on earth to God, both the Father and the Word incarnate in human form,⁶ with the Holy Spirit, too, of course, sharing in their praise. (Pp. 64-66)

(7) So he who was going to set out against the former disobedience would harm the mercy which was to be shown to them by God and the spiritual gladness which would come with faith. And why do I say only “spiritual”? For the teachings of the Lord also afforded discernible grace. And the prophet is witness when he said to the Lord, “grace has been poured upon your lips.”²⁶ Josephus the Jew also, constrained by the truth, wrote the following about him in his eighteenth book of The Antiquities:²⁷ (8) “There was about this time a wise man, Jesus, if indeed one ought to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of people who gladly speak the truth. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, on the indictment of men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had first come to love him did not cease loving him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the holy prophets had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still not now disappeared.”

26. Ps 44.32.

27. Josephus, De antiquitatibus Iudaeorum 18.63–64. (P. 70)

7. He calls the altar a censer as being receptive of incense.¹⁷ When Christ appears, the prayers of the saints, like some firstfruit and honored primal offering, are brought to him by our guardian angels, prayers which are naturally sweet-smelling, but which become sweeter-smelling with the cooperation of the holy angels. That is why it is said, He was given much incense. It was clearly God’s gift to the angels to protect human beings and to make their prayers acceptable. Those who received the incense give the sweet odor for the prayers of the saints.

(2) He says, And the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel. You see that it is by the angel that the prayers of the saints became sweeter-smelling and worthy to be carried up before God. (3) Then he says that the divine angel took the censer and filled it with divine fire and threw it on the earth; and there were loud noises, peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Perhaps one of the angels threw some of this divine fire onto Mount Sinai, “and there were thunders and loud noises and trumpets and lightnings, and the mountain was wrapped in smoke” when God visited it.¹⁸ Just as the thunders and the terrors went forth then, so now these things preceded the glorious coming of the Lord. (4) Then the angels, too, blew their trumpets, signifying the coming of God. For at that time, too, the trumpets sounded loudly.

17. The word (libanotos) means both “censer” and “incense.” Oecumenius appears to confuse the two meanings. In Rv 8.3 the word for incense is (thumamata), but in his comment Oecumenius uses (libanos).

18. Ex 19.16–19. (Pp. 83-84)

11. Everything in the vision was shaped by the evangelist in connection with the design of the Lord in his incarnation—his birth, his temptation, his teachings, the insults to him, and indeed the cross and the resurrection, and the second coming, and in addition to these the rewards and punishments of the saints and the sinners. But nothing had been said about the accounts of the heralds of his second coming, so, as though by a turnabout, these matters are now explained. (2) It is clear to everyone that the divine Scripture predicted that Elijah the Tishbite would come, because Malachi says, “See, I will send you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes, who will turn the heart of the father to his son, and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come and smite the land with might.”¹⁹ And in Matthew’s gospel the Lord says of the Baptist, “and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.”²⁰ (3) We have not heard anything at all clear about any other herald, except that Genesis said about Enoch, “because he was well-pleasing to God he was taken up,”²¹ and the wise apostle said about him, “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him.”²² (4) An old tradition holds sway in the church: with Elijah the Tishbite, Enoch will also come as the precursor of the second coming of Christ, as he prepares to take his stand against the Antichrist; for they say that they came first and testified that the signs which the Antichrist would perform were deception and that one should not believe the wretch. (5) It is about these that the vision now says that they will prophesy for so many days, meaning either some mystical number or one which will actually be the truth. (6) They will do this, he says, clothed in sackcloth. For they will mourn over the disobedience of humankind at that time. (Pp. 101-102)

… (2) And he says that when the seventh angel sounded the trumpet, there were voices in heaven saying that the kingdom of the world now belongs to God and his Christ.²⁸ God is always reigning; he neither began, nor will he ever cease, to reign over heaven and earth and all things visible and spiritual in them; he is without beginning and also without end, being master and lord of all. But since human beings speak on earth of kings, and God in a way included those who were reigning with him, when the earthly kingdom of human beings is done away at the end of the present age, God alone will reign as king. That is why it is said that the kingdom of the world now belongs to God and his Christ, since the human kings on earth and the demonic tyrants had been destroyed and made an end of. (3) When the voice had sounded, he says, the elders worshiped God, and they themselves rendered their own thanksgiving, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God, sovereign of all, who are and who were.” And he takes You who are to refer to the Holy Trinity, as well as You who were, even though You who are is especially said about the Father, and You who were about the Son; for being (You who are) refers to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we rightly say “You who were” of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So the thanksgiving of the elders is offered up to the Holy Trinity. (Pp. 105-106)

13. After he had outwitted Israel, those who had been caught by him contrived a fair address to him, saying, Who is like the beast and who is able to make war against him? (2) When all had been defeated and had fallen beneath his feet, he says, And he was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words. By whom was it given? By those people who had been thoroughly deceived and had worshiped him; for boastful talk is a mark of arrogance. For what is more arrogant than saying, “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of heaven I will place my throne”?³³ And a little later he says, “I shall be like the Most High,”³⁴ as Isaiah satirizes him. These are plainly blasphemies against God.

33. Is 14.13.

34. Is 14.14. (P. 120)

9. When the seraphim in words of the divine prophet Isaiah⁹ said “holy” three times, they ascribed the threefold hymn of praise to the one lordship, indicating on the one hand that there were three addressed in the hymns by their peculiar attributes or persons¹⁰ (if it is thought proper to say so), but one in the being¹¹ of the Godhead. So also here after the blessed angels had previously uttered Alleluia thrice, and had ascribed worship to each of the three holy beings,¹² now they go on to sing Alleluia to the Holy Trinity, intimating that the holy and glorified Trinity exists in a single being and Godhead.¹³

(2) He says, For the Lord our God has entered upon his reign: our Lord Jesus Christ, even before his saving incarnation, reigned with the Father and the all-holy Spirit over those in heaven and on earth, as the only Son and Word of the Father and as the craftsman of the universe. And after the incarnation he is likewise the lord and king of all, since in no way was he limited by his incarnation as far as concerns his supreme rule and reign. (3) But since according to the most wise apostle¹⁴ we do not yet see all things subjected to him, in the age to come all things will be subjected, including those who up to now have been haughtily resisting him, so that even death itself will be made subject to him—for “the last enemy to be destroyed is death”¹⁵—for this reason the blessed angels rightly say, The Lord our God has entered upon his reign. In so doing they refer their hymn of praise to the age to come, as then by the subjection of all things Christ will obtain in its highest perfection his reign over all. Some will make their submission by being punished, others as they come to full knowledge face to face and no longer as they now see “in a mirror or a blurred image.”¹⁶

9. Is 6.3.

10. Greek, prosopa.

11. Greek, ousia.

12. Greek, hypostaseis.

13. Greek, monadike ousia kai theotes.

14. 1 Cor 15.27–28.

15. 1 Cor 15.26.

16. 1 Cor 13.12. Oecumenius here reads di esoptou he ainigmati. (Pp. 158-159)

11. The accursed and godforsaken Greeks understand that we have a divine doctrine which states that the holy angels, with the approval of God, are the guardians of nations and of churches and of each one of us.²³ Daniel in his great wisdom wrote about the nations: “And I have come because of your words. And the prince of the kingdom of the Persians withstood me”;²⁴ and again, “But I am now returning to make war against the prince of the Persians; and I went forth, and the prince of the Greeks came”;²⁵ and again, “There is none who contends by my side for this [purpose] except Michael, your prince”;²⁶ and again, “At that time Michael will arise, the great prince, who has charge over the sons of your people.”²⁷ (2) The present Revelation has spoken previously about the guardians of the churches, with which Saint Gregory agrees when he writes of the holy angels, “I believe that an angel is a guardian of each church, as John teaches me through the Revelation.”²⁸ The prophet has spoken about the angels as guardians of each one, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and will deliver them,”²⁹ and the apostle also writes about the holy angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are going to obtain salvation?”³⁰ (3) So when [the Greeks] hear these things being taught as our belief, they say to us, “Why, you fellows, since you have the same belief as we have, do you take offense at our belief which assigns gods as rulers over nations? Those whom you call angels, we call gods: we disagree only about the names, and no longer about the facts; and since you also say ranks of angels are called gods, the difference is not even about names.” (4) To them we must reply: “You are damned: both in the worship of the works of your hands, and in having set up as gods only yesterday or the day before those whom you knew to be involved in all kinds of disgraceful conduct, you filched away most of our divine teachings; you took them and mixed them with your deadly doctrines, but, as you took your reason and not God as your guide, you were not able to preserve the overall excellence of our doctrines, but after following them a little way you were shipwrecked somewhere near the start. Wherefore, we and you have nothing in common, just as Scripture says, ‘light has nothing in common with darkness or Christ with Beliar.’31 (5) For when you think of national gods (though really they are unclean demons), you show yourselves as offering reverence to them and wishing to worship them as gods; and when you have deified them, they take no account of God, who has made provision for the care of humankind, but they govern the nations by their own will just as they wish. (6) So you allocated to Ares the fierce and bloodthirsty Scythians and Germans, who had become such under the rule of murderous Ares, the bane of human beings; and you assign the Greeks for their intelligence to Athene, as having obtained their intelligence from her;³² and you deal similarly with others, assigning the gods to the nations each according to their own natural propensity.”

(7) But you will understand what we say from the present text. For when the evangelist wished to worship the divine angel, but not to worship him as God (for who knew better than John who is naturally and truly God, and who the angels are, that they are ministers and slaves and creatures of God?), nevertheless [the angel] is shown as refusing to accept even the worship due to an angel, since this is indeed a form of worship, and saying, Don’t do that! I am a fellow slave with you and your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. (8) “Don’t do that” is not simply a phrase to prevent an action, but is a positive affirmation. He says that he is himself a fellow slave of all who confess themselves slaves of Christ and who testify that God has become incarnate. (9) What, therefore, must we do, most divine angel, when you refuse to be worshiped? He says, Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, as if he were saying, “Are you trying to worship me, because I told you beforehand the things that are to come? All those who witness to the rule and divinity of Christ are full of prophetic grace, and not I alone. Why, therefore,” he says, “do you worship one who has been given the same grace as my fellow slaves? Can the Greeks’ beliefs about those who rule over the nations ever be the same as what Christians say about the holy angels?”

23. Cyril of Alexandria, Contra Julianum 4.

24. Dn 10.12–13.

25. Dn 10.20.

26. Dn 10.21.

27. Dn 12.1.

28. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orationes 42.9.

29. Ps 33.8.

30. Heb 1.14. 31. 2 Cor 6.14–15.

32. Cf. Homer, Iliad 5.31, 455, 844, 846. (Pp. 160-162)

(7) He says, His eyes are a flame of fire: the fire of his eyes shows his fury against the enemy. (8) And on his head, he says, are many diadems, altogether as many as the regiments in heaven and on earth over which he reigns. He has a name, he says, inscribed which no one but he himself knows. (9) In the seventh section of Exodus God says to blessed Moses, “I, the Lord, appeared to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, being their God, but I did not make known to them my name, ‘the Lord,’”³⁹ as it is clearly greater than anything which can be comprehended by the hearing of a human being. This is why the Lord told his apostles how those who turn to the knowledge of God must be baptized, saying, “baptizing them into the name”; and when he said name he did not use the title “Lord.” For he was not able to utter their title, “Lord,” but instead of calling them “Lord” he gave relational and descriptive names, saying in relational terms, “into the name of the Father and of the Son,” and then adding the descriptive term “and of the Holy Spirit.”⁴⁰ So with great accuracy in the Revelation, too, he lets the name “Lord” of the only Son be unknown to all and sundry.

(10) He says, Clad in a robe sprinkled with blood: for even in the vision the Lord was bearing the marks of his passion, and was showing his all-holy body all but covered with his precious blood. (11) And his name is called the Word of God: do you see how after avoiding the name “Lord” above, the vision has now put a descriptive title instead of it, saying, The Word of God? (12) And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine white linen, followed him on white horses: for he is the commander-in-chief of the heavenly powers, and thus the Lord has called himself, bearing the title of “Jesus son of Nun,”⁴¹ saying, “As the commander-in-chief of the power of the Lord have I now come.”⁴² (13) The horses are white for the holy angels, too; for they delight in the pure among humankind, since they are naturally pure and unstained by any defilement. The clothing of pure white linen shows this…

(19) On his robe and on his thigh he has [a name] inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords: the robe is an allegorical description of the flesh of the Lord, which has been given life by his mind,⁴⁸ according to the holy angels speaking in Isaiah: “Why are your robes red, and your garments like those of one who has come from a fully trodden wine-press?”⁴⁹ The thigh clearly indicates his physical birth; for it is written in Genesis, “All the souls who entered Egypt with Jacob, those who came from his thighs. . . .”⁵⁰ (20) The symbolism of the writing on his robe and on his thigh shows “Emmanuel” to be king over all.⁵¹ Although the Word was hypostatically united to the flesh and underwent a physical birth from a virgin, he is no less King and Lord of all things in heaven and upon earth, since his dignity was not diminished by his incarnation; for as such he was God, and is God, and will always be so.

39. Ex 6.2–3.

40. Mt 28.19.

41. Jos 5.9.

42. Jos 5.14

48. Greek, noeros.

 49. Is 63.2–3.

50. Gn 46.26.

51. Is 7.14. (Pp. 164-166)

17. For this is what he goes on to say. Surely the Revelation is not telling us about the thousand years of the ungodly Greeks and the transmigration of souls and the water of Lethe and I do not know what nonsense and silly talk, when it says that the Devil will be bound for a thousand years and released again and deceive the nations? Forget about such worthless doctrines which are fitting for Greek crookedness! (2) What then does he say? The prophet tells us, “For a thousand years in your sight, Lord, are like yesterday which is past, and a watch in the night.”⁵⁸

So, then, the thousand years are reckoned as one day in the eyes of God. The second epistle of blessed Peter says the same thing, when he writes, “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”⁵⁹ (3) So this is how it is: blessed Isaiah calls the whole incarnation of the Lord “a day,” saying, “In a time of favor I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.”⁶⁰ Nor is this all: the psalmist, too, calls it a day and an early morning, saying somewhere, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”⁶¹ with the joy of our salvation; elsewhere he sings, “in the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will stand by you, and you will see me.”⁶² For our prayers have been deemed acceptable and worthy of the vision of God and the Father. They have become so by the intercession and atonement of the Lord. And again he says about Jerusalem, “God will help her in the early morning.”⁶³ (4) The incarnation of the Lord has become the day and early morning, when “the sun of righteousness” (as Malachi calls him) shone upon us,⁶⁴ and brought us “the light of knowledge.”⁶⁵ Zechariah prophesied about this divine light, saying, “When the rising of the sun dawned upon us from on high, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”⁶⁶ In accord with this the prophet also said, “The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us; bind the festal procession together with branches, up to the horns of the altar.”⁶⁷

Since all this has already been explained, we must proceed to the matter in hand. (5) Since I have already said that a day is reckoned “as a thousand years” by God, and again that the earthly residence of the Lord has been called “a day,” he says this day is a thousand years, as though there is no distinction with God between one day and a thousand years. (6) It was in this period of the Lord’s incarnation that the Devil was bound, so that he was unable to oppose the savior’s divine miracles. This was why the destructive demons recognized these spiritual bonds and cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of the living God? Have you come to torment us before the time?”⁶⁸ The Lord, too, when talking of stripping off the bonds, said, “Or how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.”⁶⁹ (7) Since, as was said, we have considered the incarnation of the Lord and his earthly residence to be both one day and a thousand years, such a number being used indifferently in Holy Scripture in mystical fashion, see what the Revelation says:

I saw another angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the bottomless pit and a chain, and he says, he seized the Devil and bound him and threw him into the pit. (8) As if in a sketch on a canvas, the evangelist perceives the spiritual actions of the Lord against the Devil. Since it was not possible for a human being such as John to see spiritual events, they are depicted for him in physical terms—an angel with a chain binding the Devil and throwing him into the bottomless pit. For this is how the book of Job, too, expressed in physical terms the Devil’s venture and God’s consent: it depicted the Devil begging God to give him [Job], and it depicted God as making a suitable response to his request and giving him Job, and then went on to write the story. So you will be right in thinking that I am now doing the same.

(9) He says, That he should no longer deceive the nations, till the thousand years were ended: for the Lord’s sojourn on earth had to provide rather more succor and care so that the unclean demons might be prevented from exercising the same influence on human beings as they had in the time preceding the incarnation. He says, (10) After that he must be loosed for a little while. What sort of little while does he mean? That between the incarnation of the Lord and the end of the present age; for this is short, even if it may seem to be very long, when reckoned and compared with the past and the future. For if in the “last” hour, even in “the eleventh” hour,⁷⁰ our Lord appeared in bodily form to us, according to the belief of Holy Scripture, the time until the end has rightly been called short, after which [the Devil] will be bound again with an eternal and endless bond. (11) But even now that he has been released, bind again, Lord, his wiles against us. For you are our king, and to you is due glory for ever. Amen.

58. Ps 89.4.

59. 2 Pt 3.8.

60. Is 49.8.

61. Ps 117.24.

62. Ps 5.4. The LXX reads soi . . . epopsomai (“I shall look to you”); Oecumenius reads epopsei me (“you will see me”).

63. Ps 45.6.

64. Mal 4.2.

65. Hos 10.12.

66. Lk 1.78–79; cf. Zec 14.6–7.

67. Ps 117.27.

68. Mt 8.29.

69. Mt 12.29.

70. Mt 20.6, 9. (Pp. 168-170)

3. The previous chapter had said that after the vision had once made mention of the Devil, in order to retain some continuity in the account, it went on to describe not only what the Devil will suffer at the end of the present age, but also his spiritual sufferings in the time of the Lord’s incarnation. The vision continues with this theme and describes in greater detail the Lord’s incarnate visit to us; this is now our present concern. (2) For he says, Then I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was committed to them: he sees in his vision the holy apostles “seated on twelve thrones” and “judging the twelve tribes of Israel,”¹ according to the promise made to them. Although this will be more fully effected in the age to come, it has already happened in some way in the time of the incarnation. For those who put their trust in the Lord and so received a share in countless benefits condemned those who refused to hasten to the faith and so, though taught by the grace given to the apostles, did not attain the true worship of God, but rather devised a cross and death for him.

(3) He says, And the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God: the verb I saw in the phrase “those seated upon thrones and judging the rest of mankind” is to be understood here, too. By those who had been beheaded he means those who had been killed with an axe.² He is speaking figuratively about those who had put to death their own bodies because of their faith in Christ, and who endured very much because of it. For they expelled them from the synagogues, assaulted them with countless abuses, and plundered their personal possessions, when they put their faith entirely in Christ, as the wise apostle testifies.³ The Lord also spoke of them, “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”⁴ (4) If you follow the sequence of the argument and subject every thought in obedience to Holy Scripture, you will understand that those who did not worship the beast and did not receive its mark or its image, are those who did not agree with the rest of the Jews in their plots against the Lord, and who refused to obey the propositions of the abominable and blasphemous Devil. For this is to worship him and his image. For by the word image he means the imprint of [the Devil’s] will in the hearts of the Jews. He also means that this mark includes both control and action. For the head, of which the forehead is a part, stands for control, and the hand stands for action.

(5) They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years: as was said earlier, he again calls the Lord’s domicile on earth a thousand years, during which they were living their spiritual life, and reigning together with Christ, as they gave orders to demons, cured diseases, and worked countless miracles. For it is not simply by being present with Christ, the king of glory, that a person reigns together with him.⁵ So the prophet said of them, “When the Heavenly One gives the orders, kings will be covered with snow in Salmon.”⁶

(6) The rest of the dead did not come to life, he says, until the thousand years were ended: he calls dead those who have persisted in unbelief, about whom the Lord also said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.”⁷ So the unbelievers did not come to the spiritual life until the time of the incarnation had ended, which is the thousand years; for they came to life only after this. How? By the coming and presence of the Holy Spirit. For by then most of the Jews had come to faith in Christ, who did not believe in him when he was physically dwelling and moving among them. (7) The event was most divinely ordered, beyond the hope of any human mind. For when the Son⁸ had been proclaimed and made known in the old covenant as well as by his incarnation and his countless divine signs and miracles, the Holy Spirit had not yet been clearly revealed to human beings. There was only a report about the Spirit in the old covenant, but there was no manifest and perceptible work of the kind which specially leads people to faith, as there was of the Son, even though the Spirit was being made known to those who had attained the depth of vision, because everything which has been done and effected has been accomplished by the Holy Trinity. (8) The Lord clearly proves this, saying somewhere, “The Father has told me what I am to say and what I am to speak,”⁹ and again, “I can do nothing on my own,”¹⁰ referring the events to the Trinity; and again in John, “The Son of man can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees his Father doing”;¹¹ and elsewhere he asserts, “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God.”¹² (9) But since, as I have said, there was no perceptible work of the Holy Spirit available to human beings, it was arranged that almost all people should receive faith in Christ by the coming and the power of the Paraclete and of God the Father, in order that it might be clear to everyone that the Spirit was of the same substance¹³ as the Father and the Son, and possessed of the same power. (10) Of course, in the whole period of the incarnation not more than “a hundred and twenty” are recorded as having been believers.¹⁴ This was the number reckoned by Acts of those assembled in the upper room. Even if the power of the teaching of Christ had reached many others, their faith was maintained by the coming of the Spirit. (11) So one might find that, just as when seed has been scattered the rain comes down and the sun shines upon all the seeds that up to this time have been hidden unnoticed in the earth, and then they spring up and become visible, because they were wholly stored up in the earth, so, too, the same thing happens at the coming of the Holy Spirit. All those in whom the teaching of the Lord had been sown sprang up into faith. So the Revelation accurately says that the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years had ended.

1. Mt 19.28.

2. “Those who had been beheaded” renders hoi pepelekismenoi, literally, those who had been “cut off with an axe” (pelekus).

3. Cf. Heb 10.34.

4. Mt 5.11.

5. Cf. 2 Tm 2.10–12.

6. Ps 67.15.

7. Mt 8.22.

8. Some manuscripts read “the Father” (ho Pater).

9. Jn 12.49.

10. Jn 8.28.

11. Jn 5.19.

12. Mt 12.28.

13. Greek, omoousios. (Pp. 171-174)

12. Was I not right in saying earlier on that the vision figuratively calls the lot of the saints and their residence there the spiritual Jerusalem? See, it has now disclosed the symbolism, saying, See, the dwelling of God is with human beings. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. The apostle made this clearer when he said, “Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and we shall always be with the Lord.”⁴¹

41. 1 Thes 4.17. (P. 184)

(5) He says, Its radiance, that is, Christ, the “sun of righteousness,”⁵² is like jasper: jasper, as was also said earlier, is green, and so exhibits the life-giving and quickening gift of Christ, who “opens his hand and fills every living thing with satisfaction.”⁵³ For green is the origin of all earthly nourishment. But the jasper was also as clear as crystal, exhibiting the purity and holiness of Christ, “for he had committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth,”⁵⁴ according to the prophecy of Isaiah. (6) Again, Christ is himself a wall of the saints, that is, of the church, since he is our defense and shelter and succor.

(7) He says it has twelve gates, symbolizing the divine apostles who proclaimed to us the entrance into faith in Christ. (8) And at the gates twelve angels: I am convinced that the divine angels worked with the holy apostles to bring the world to faith; for if the law of Moses was spoken by means of angels—as the apostle says, “For if the message declared by means of angels was valid”⁵⁵ —surely the preaching of the gospel even more so had the cooperation of angels?

(9) He says, And names were written on them which are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel: historically Israel is those who were born from Jacob the patriarch, but spiritually it means those who walk by the faith of our father Abraham. The apostle witnesses to this when he says, “And he is the father of the circumcised, not only of those who are circumcised but also of those who follow in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham.”⁵⁶ Israel is interpreted as “the mind seeing God,” or being clear-sighted.⁵⁷ Who rather than the believers have had a vision of God in their mind or have become clear-sighted by the abundant operation of the Spirit? So the names of these have been engraved on the gates of the city. (10) The twelve tribes indicate the full complement of the faithful. For after calling the believers Israel, he has mentioned, too, the number of their full complement, by saying twelve tribes, and he says that they came from the four corners of the world through three gates [on each side]. For the blessed apostles have mentioned the whole Trinity, proclaiming to the nations [the persons of the Godhead] as being of the same substance,⁵⁸ and “baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”⁵⁹

(11) And the wall of the city, he says, had twelve foundations: for Christ, whom we have considered to be a wall, relies on the preaching of the apostles, and stands upon them like “a precious cornerstone,”⁶⁰ according to Scripture. (12) And on them, that is, on the foundations, are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb: he has at last revealed the symbolism by clearly saying that he means the apostles are the gates and foundations of the holy city, the church. (13) May all of us stand firm in their teaching and “avoid the unhallowed chatter of the falsely called knowledge”⁶¹ of the heretics, by the grace of “Christ our master”⁶² and “chief shepherd,”⁶³ to whom be the glory for ever. Amen.

52. Mal 4.2.

53. Ps 144.16.

54. Is 53.9.

55. Heb 2.2.

56. Rom 4.12.

57. See n. 15 at 2.5.5. 58. Greek, homoousios.

59. Mt 28.19.

60. 1 Pt 2.6; Is 28.16; Eph 2.20.

61. 1 Tm 6.20.

62. Mt 23.10.

63. 1 Pt 5.4. (Pp. 187-188)

(15) He says, And the street of the city was pure gold, like clear glass: it has already been said that gold and the purity and transparency of glass suggest the worth and purity of the life of the saints. (16) He says, And I saw no temple in it, for its temple is the Lord God, the sovereign of all, and the Lamb: what is the need of a temple when God is present with the saints and in a way sharing his life with them, and is seen by them face to face, insofar as he may be approached? For the divine apostle has called the knowledge of God in the present life as being “in a mirror” and “dimly,” but that in the future it will be “face to face.”¹³ (17) One might reasonably ask, “Why did he mention God the sovereign Lord, and the Father, the Lord, and the Lamb, the Son of God, without making mention of the Holy Spirit?” (18) To such a questioner one must reply, “My good man, by saying the Lord and God he has named the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—for this is God¹⁴—and by saying further, the Lord God, the sovereign of all, he indicated the Holy Trinity by the three titles.” (19) But one might go on to ask: “Why, therefore, after mentioning the venerable Trinity in the words The Lord God, the sovereign of all, is its temple, does he separately specify for us the Lamb, who is Christ, so that we no longer think of the Trinity?” (20) “This is nonsense,” I would tell him. This is not what we are being taught. By mentioning both the Holy Trinity and the Lamb, the account indicates both that the incarnate Son is one person of the Holy Trinity, and that the Son completes the Holy Trinity in his humanity and is not now apart from his humanity in heaven. He indicated, somewhat obscurely, the incarnate Son by the word God, who is the Son, and by the Lamb he again meant the same Christ, incarnate and of the same essence as we are, animated by a rational soul, in the flesh with which the Word is hypostatically united.¹⁵

13. 1 Cor 13.12.

14. Greek tau`ta here refers to the three descriptions (onomasiai) of God the sovereign Lord.

15. Greek, hemin homoousio (“of the same substance with us”). The Word (Logos) is united hypostatically or personally (Greek, kath hypostasin). (Pp. 192-193)

(4) He says, On either side of the river was a fruitful tree of life bearing fruit each month: the Lord is the tree of life according to what the writer of Proverbs says about wisdom; he says, “She is a tree of life to those who lay hold on her,”²¹ and wise Paul told us, “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”²² He means that not only are the saints enriched by Christ’s gracious gifts, but they also have him dwelling in them and with them, which is the crown of highest bliss. Christ, the tree of life, produces for the saints continuous and uninterrupted fruit and gifts, so that honor follows on honor and they are never without the divine flow of gifts. (5) He says, And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations: the leaves of life are those who are dependent on Christ and hold close to him—patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs and confessors, those who at the right time perform the priestly service of the gospel,²³ pastors of the church, and every righteous soul; all these have now found healing for their souls, and all good things will be added to the saints.

21. Prv 3.18.

22. 1 Cor 1.24.

23. Cf. Rom 15.16. (P. 195)

(5) He says, I am the root and the offspring of David, but it would seem to have been more appropriate to say, “I am the branch which has sprung up from the root of David.” But, on the contrary, he has now called himself the root of David, and not only the root but also the offspring, as was said earlier. A root is also the origin of everything, including David, so that he is, and is considered to be, God; but he is also the offspring of David, sprung from him according to the flesh, insofar as he is, and is considered to be, a human being. This is who he is. “To say the same things more than once is not irksome to me, but is safe” for those who read, as the divine apostle says somewhere of his words.³³ (6) So therefore he is “Emmanuel”³⁴ in his divinity and in his humanity, each of the two natures being complete according to their respective qualities, without confusion, without change, immutable, unimaginable.³⁵ We believe that after the inexpressible union there is one person, one hypostasis, and one activity,³⁶ “even if the difference of the natures, from which we say that the ineffable union has been effected, may not be overlooked,” as well as the peculiar quality of each nature, according to the words of our blessed father Cyril.³⁷

33. Phil 3.1.

34. Is 7.14.

35. The four adverbs re­flect the four adverbs of the Chalcedonian Definition of Faith, but the last two are different from those in the Definition.

36. Greek: prosopon, hypostasis, energeia.

37. Cyril of Alexandria, Ep. ad Iohannem Antioch. 8. (Pp. 199-200)

20. As for this divine Revelation, some say, wagging their tongues brashly and ignorantly, that it was not composed by the divine John the evangelist and theologian. They listen to this tradition as though they have secretly received it. (2) But I think they say this not from ignorance nor from any secret revelation, but only from simplicity and, if one may dare to say it, from cowardice and a passionate love for earthly things, showing by their denials their fear of what is absolutely incontrovertible. For in the face of the explicit testimony of the blessed and holy fathers, who is able to contradict their testimony or somehow to reach the conclusion that this is certainly not the case? (3) For the great Basil in his writings against Eunomius refutes his godless blasphemies and nonsense.⁴⁶ The divine theologian referred to these in his fourth book, “in which he mentions on the authority of the divinely inspired Scriptures both the problems and solutions to the controversies about the Son” by means of the Old and New Testaments. He starts by saying, “If the Son is God by nature, and the Father is also God by nature, the Son is not one God and the Father another, but they are the same.”⁴⁷ And later on,⁴⁸ “Moses said about the Son, ‘I am has sent me,’⁴⁹ and John the evangelist said, ‘In the beginning was the Word,’⁵⁰ and he said ‘was’ not once only, but four times, and again elsewhere he said, ‘he who is from God’⁵¹ and ‘he who is in the bosom of the Father,’⁵² and elsewhere, ‘he who is in heaven,’⁵³ and in the Revelation, ‘he who is and who was and is to come.’”⁵⁴ He made no distinction between authors, but he followed the testimony of Paul and repeated it. (4) If then this Revelation was composed by some other John, as the nonsense of the majority has it, the great Basil also would have written his books on the Revelation with the name of its author. But after first listing the books of Moses, and then those of the apostle and theologian, as those, too, of the apostle Paul, he had no need to refer to anyone else in addition to these. These then are the incontrovertible words of the great and holy Basil. (5) The great Gregory, surnamed “the Theologian,” whom they call “the Organizer,” when he was making his defense in the presence of the hundred and fifty bishops,⁵⁵ clearly and truly wrote, “When will you inherit my holy mountain?” and he went on to say, “I am convinced that others preside over other churches, as John teaches me in Revelation.”⁵⁶ (6) And Eusebius Pamphyli, in the third book of his Ecclesiastical History, says somewhere,⁵⁷ “This, then, was the situation of the Jews at that time,” and goes on to say, “It is recorded that at that time John the apostle and evangelist was still alive, and was sentenced by Domitian the son of Vespasian to live on the island of Patmos on account of his witness to the divine word. Indeed, Irenaeus, when writing about the number of the name of the Antichrist as given in the book of John called Revelation, uses these very words in the fifth book of his Against the Heresies, saying about John: ‘If it seems right at the present time for this name to be openly announced, it would have been mentioned by the one who actually saw the Revelation.’”

52. Jn 1.18.

53. Jn 3.13.

54. Rv 1.8.

55. At the Council of Constantinople, A.D. 381.

56. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orationes 42.8–9.

57. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.1.1 and 3.18.1–3. (Pp. 202-203)